Radiation threat is rejected
The Public Power Corporation (PPC) denied yesterday that its plant near Megalopolis, in the Peloponnese, is polluting the surrounding area with radioactive isotopes, as a study published by Kathimerini yesterday argues. A PPC statement said that the Megalopolis power plant is being monitored by the Democritos National Center for Scientific Research, which has found that radiation levels in that area are «normal… and are, under no circumstances, dangerous to the local population.» The study by National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) Associate Professor Ioanna Anastassopoulou indicated that air radiation around the village of Valtetsi, near Megalopolis, is over four times that of natural radiation levels. This was attributed to isotopes in the ash from lignite burned at Megalopolis. PPC said it would renew its filters at the plant in the next five years, but denounced the study as «baseless and scientifically unfounded.» And NTUA Dean Themistocles Xanthopoulos said studies at Megalopolis by the NTUA nuclear technology laboratory did not confirm Anastassopoulou’s research.
